by David Bennett

Christened December 6, 1825 by the City's founder, General Simon Perkins, Perkins Square Park was originally designated as the town square of Akron, Ohio. Although the City developed differently than originally planned, this 2.5-acre parcel nevertheless remained a city park -- a rare green space within downtown Akron, adjacent to Children's Hospital Medical Center of Akron.

The square was bordered with busy downtown streets when the Hospital and the City joined forces to revitalize it in 1990. The Hospital hoped to make the park more accessible to its staff and visitors from its newly expanded facilities, while the City saw an opportunity to address the Park's many problems. Though a design competition for the park's revitalization drew nationally prominent firms, Akron's own Environmental Design Group, an interdisciplinary firm offering engineering, landscape architecture and surveying, was selected as Landscape Architect. It was a community project in every way.

Historically, the park had served as a public commons; but in the 1970's it had been redeveloped with a central-court games area recessed below eye level from the adjoining streets with the idea that the spatially enclosed area would serve as an informal amphitheater for gatherings and events. In the fashion of the times, such areas were thought to benefit social interaction because they both visually and physically separated pedestrians from the busy urban street scene.

Unfortunately, this progressive thinking had ignored the realities of urban life. In this case, seclusion benefitted trouble makers more than it did the rest of the public, offering an ideal hiding place for drug dealers and others to carry on their "business." Perkins Square Park essentially developed a reputation as a place to avoid, particularly after dark. "Before Children's Hospital Medical Center expanded recently, Perkins Square Park was generally unused and somewhat unsafe. Rarely were there any tennis players on the courts and poor illumination at night kept people away from the park," said Bob Howard, Vice President of Corporate Services at Children's Hospital Medical Center of Akron.

Re-planning began in 1991 with the City, Hospital, Architect, and Landscape Architect. "Public safety, as well as aesthetics were supremely important," states Dennis Mersky, ASLA, Director of Landscape Architecture at Environmental Design Group and principal designer of the project. "One of our first decisions was to raise the park back to street level. The design, as we found it, not only violated the square's historic purpose, but it was also dangerous. The court-games area was set about five feet below street level with retaining walls and steps around the limits of the play surface. This made it difficult to maintain any kind of surveillance along the streets. Not only was it difficult for police in cruisers to see into the park, but pedestrians were made fearful of what was hidden beyond their eyesight."

The outcome of the redesign is a dramatic statement for the Hospital and a substantial safety improvement for visitors to the park. The park's redevelopment centers on a formal commons or green space that replaces the unsafe court-games area and restores the site's historic character. It is still intended to serve as an official reception area for festivals and hospital events, but also as an informal gathering spot for the lunchtime enjoyment of hospital employees, patients and visitors in the downtown area.

The Hospital's multi-story atrium is formally aligned with this ellipse of lawn, whose expanse now rests slightly above street level. The entire plaza is easily observed from the second story atrium of the Hospital. In fact, the park is designed as the primary interest element of the atrium with large window expanses to observe park goings-on. "This park is now our front lawn and offers a wonderful view both inside the hospital's atrium and from the street," said hospital spokesperson Howard. Both the perimeter sidewalk and an interior-looped walk provide good sight lines across the park, vastly improving security and restoring a sense of comfort to those visiting Perkins Square Park.

Unlike the previous conception, this park embraces the street as a necessary and desirable part of the park experience. Recalling the site's history, the historic boundary is marked with a brick band that overlays the park design and is inscribed with bronze plaques at the corners. Plus, the park is announced at the street by two public entrance plazas with generous seating and colorful plantings.

At the Hospital's park entrance a children's play plaza is created for children who may be recuperating at the hospital, and as a sunny lunchtime location for hospital visitors and employees. The plaza is highly interactive with play equipment, a colorful surface and a delightfully-playful decorative fountain designed to mimic a natural freshwater pool.

New lighting was installed both to improve security and to create a festive atmosphere. Walkways are illuminated with ornamental post lights that function as a striking design element and offer greater assurance of safety after dark. Environmental Design Group also introduced up-lighting of the large trees that remain from the historic era for both visual effect and security.

Perkins Square Park has been transformed from a frightening, unsafe public space, underutilized by the public, to a vital public resource and a dramatic architectural statement for the City and Children's Hospital Medical Center. Once again, this park can be visited and enjoyed. Proof that the new park design works can be seen in its use -- families, children, and downtown workers all flock to the park during the day and evening, and hospital employees no longer feel insecure about crossing through the park at night. The park has become so popular that the Hospital has installed a portable food concession for summer lunch hours.

"The park has been redesigned to match the needs of this and coming decades. The tennis courts were replaced with a vast lawn, the walks are laced with decorative lap posts and play areas have been erected for our patients to enjoy. We've noticed a vast improvement in park visitation. And, employees as well as patients and their visitors seem to enjoy sitting in the park on a warm summer evening," Bob Howard said of the successful restoration project that is so integral to the hospital's place in the community.

The redevelopment of Perkins Square Park makes it both an historic and modern site in the city and has earned Environmental Design Group both an 1995 Honor Award from the Ohio Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the ongoing gratitude of families, children, hospital employees and other downtown workers in their home city.